improvisations

Here is a small selection of improvisations I have made either solo or with fantastic collaborators. You can find more pieces on my Bandcamp page, including the whole album of the fifteen sonnets by Lotta Olsson: Orpheus – The Dark Path.

Section from improvised song cycle created with Sarah Wallcook, Sweden 2023. The latest in our collaborative journey. The words are from “Den mörka stigen” by Lotta Olsson, used with kind permission of the poet.
https://youtu.be/NdO3yVWGAYM
An improvisation loosely based on “Sankofa” by the amazing Cassandra Wilson – “Yesterday’s Moon”
Geoff Bartholomew – trumpet: Jilly Jarman – keyboard/sounds
An improvisation by Julia Farrington – flute and Jilly Jarman – piano to Sarah Reid’s painting of Allonby Beach, during lockdown 2021
In a cave in Cumbria, Dave, Sian, John, Bex, Katherine & myself – jamming on this tune of mine.
Geoff Bartholomew – trumpet: Asha Nicholson – voice: Jilly Jarman – keyboards, sounds
Jilly Jarman – piano; Sarah Wallcook – voice I love improvising as a way of introducing and playing with new ideas, in performance and in workshops as an inclusive and engaging method of making music together.
Jilly Jarman – piano
5 Voices – ad hoc group of singers in my bedroom, London about 1996 – Kate Stilitz, Dike Okoh, Lizzie Bacon, Sue Jarvis, myself
Jilly Jarman – organ; Geoff Bartholomew – trumpet. Improvisation for Freiraum project at Methodist Chapel, Carlisle 2020
Dark Sand
Improvisation with Sarah Wallcook 2013